The chairman of the model railway club whose exhibition was destroyed by vandals has vowed it will ‘rise from the ashes’ after well-wishers donated £85,000 in the wake of the shocking incident.
Peter Davies, 70, said Market Deeping Model Railway Club’s members were ‘overwhelmed’ by the generosity of the public and said they would use the cash to help other clubs improve their security and prevent anything similar happening in the future.
Police have arrested four boys – one aged 16 and three aged 15 – over the damage to the ‘priceless’ exhibition held at Stamford Welland Academy in Lincolnshire and released them on bail.
Celebrity model railway enthusiasts including Sir Rod Stewart and Pete Waterman are among those to donate, with Sir Rod giving the club £10,000 after saying he ‘felt their pain’.
Mr Davies, 70, said exhibits were smashed, thrown around and stamped on, including a locomotive unit worth about £8,500.
Other enthusiasts lost hundreds of items – including hand-made pieces – that took decades to build and put together into displays, with the total cost of the damage running into tens of thousands of pounds.
Exhibits worth tens of thousands of pounds were destroyed after vandals broke into a school in Lincolnshire and smashed up models belonging to Market Deeping Model Railway Club
Club chairman Peter Davies, far right, said they would ‘rise from the ashes’ following the vandalism and said members were ‘overwhelmed’ by the £85,000 donated so far. He is pictured with fellow members (from left) Mick Quinn, Bill Sowerby and Colin Broom
Four youths were arrested on suspicion of burglary and criminal damage and have since been released on conditional bail. Above: A destroyed model lies on the floor of the school hall
The vandals smashed more than 500 or Paul Andrews’ (pictured) 600 display items, featuring trains and train set accessories such as cars, animals, people and telegraph poles
Members of the Lincolnshire-based club were left devastated after the destruction led to the cancellation of the model railway event at Stamford Welland Academy
The intricate models were faithful depictions of their real-life counterparts and required immense time and skill to build
Speaking about the damage, Mr Davies said: ‘This is truly horrific. All I know is people are emotionally destroyed. I was showing someone from the insurance company my own railway at home and I was in floods of tears.
‘I have seen the good and most of the worst of people but I have never seen anything like this. What made the youngsters do this, I have no idea.’
On the donations, Mr Davies said: ‘My initial thoughts are it is just totally overwhelming. We are totally overwhelmed by their generosity. It is just phenomenal.
‘Out of the worst of evil and the very worst of emotions… we have now gone from one end of the spectrum to the other.’
Mr Davies said the destroyed sets could ‘never be rebuilt’ because of the years of work that had gone into them.
He added: ‘We will look to help all of those who helped us in any way with our exhibition. This isn’t just about Market Deeping Model Railway Club, this is about anyone involved in any way.
‘We are also looking at how we can support anyone across the model railway world. We are looking at how we can support other clubs who are putting on exhibitions who have extra security requirements that they hadn’t budgeted for.’
He added: ‘If people want to donate that is truly wonderful and we are very very grateful. We are rising from the ashes.’
Four youths have been arrested on suspicion of burglary and criminal damage. The club had set up an exhibition in the school for viewing on Sunday. Above: Exhibition manager Bill Sowerby clutching one of the damaged models
Model railway enthusiast Sir Rod Stewart, pictured with a huge set from his Beverley Hills home, has donated £10,000 to Market Deeping Model Railway Club after vandals destroyed their exhibits at their annual show over the weekend
Sir Rod, 74, has been a huge fan of trains since his childhood growing up in north London and watching them from his window. He is pictured at Toronto Railway Historical Association
Sir Rod, who made a film earlier this year about his own 100ft model railway at his Beverley Hills home in California, also called on his friends and fellow enthusiasts Jools Holland and The Who’s Roger Daltrey to follow his example.
The 74-year-old musician said: ‘I was absolutely devastated to hear that vandals had destroyed what was to be a lovely show by the Market Deeping Model Railway Club over the weekend.
‘The collection was priceless and I am donating £10,000 to help compensate those affected and asking fellow enthusiasts Jools Holland, Roger Daltrey and others to do the same. It took me 23 years to build my model railway so I feel their pain.’
Sir Rod has even built a scale model of New York’s Grand Central station in his US pad and, speaking in his film, said he wants people to treat it with respect, adding: ‘Don’t say it’s a ‘train set’. It is a scale-model railway.’
Music producer and DJ Pete Waterman, 72, who has been a model railway enthusiast for 60 years, told MailOnline many of the members of the club will be heartbroken after ‘losing their life’s work’. He said: ‘I’m just speechless. It’s a lifetime of work. I know one guy who had one engine there worth £5,500, and he has lost five engines in total. The reason they are so valuable is they take so long to build, and if you give someone £5,000 again now, they wouldn’t build it again
‘We had to abandon the whole thing because it was it was scene of total devastation,’ said the club chairman. This picture shows the scale of the damage, with flipped tables and chairs
Well-wishers have already raised more than £60,000 to help repair and replace the models and stars including Sir Rod Stewart and DJ Pete Waterman have pledged their support
Pictured is Paul Andrews from P & D Marsh Model Railway club who had brought his own models to the exhibition only to see them destroyed. Club chairman Peter Davies said there were ‘grown men in tears’ following the vandalism
He has previously revealed his interest in the hobby came from when he lived above a newsagent’s with his parents in Highgate, north London, and would watch trains from his window.
Music producer and DJ Pete Waterman, 72, who has been a model railway enthusiast for 60 years, told MailOnline many of the members of the club will be heartbroken after ‘losing their life’s work’.
He said: ‘I’m just speechless. It’s a lifetime of work. I know one guy who had one engine there worth £5,500, and he has lost five engines in total. The reason they are so valuable is they take so long to build, and if you give someone £5,000 again now, they wouldn’t build it again.
‘If I had walked in and seen that, that would have been me finished. I would have got into my car and said ‘enough’. This is a hobby that has got me through some terrible times. The pleasure of it is building something and seeing it work, as well as the social side of it.’
Mr Andrews had model railway sets as early as he can remember as a child, and began making them himself when his oldest child Louis, now 35, was interested in Thomas The Tank Engine. Above: Some of Mr Andrews’s destroyed models
Mr Andrews said the destruction was ‘mindless’. ‘It’s depressing. It’s frustrating someone has destroyed a big chunk of my business,’ he added
The models which Mr Andrews constructed were painstakingly constructed over hundreds of hours but were smashed to pieces in just a few minutes
Above: the extraordinary level of detail in the models, which will now need to be replaced at great expense of time and money
Mr Waterman said he had donated to the club’s appeal, although declined to say how much. He added he would invite them to have a prominent role at the Warley Model Railway Exhibition at the NEC Arena in Birmingham that he is president of, set to take place in November.
He added: ‘I’ve no idea what makes four young kids break into a school and do this. We’ve had some ideas about forming working parties and going down there [to Market Deeping] and helping them rebuild. But a lot of these guys have had their hearts broken. It’s like when a child has a favourite toy and you come along and stamp on it.
‘This is just out of the norm. I’ve been doing shows for 40 years and I can probably name the amount of times something has even been pinched from a show because it’s happened so few times.’
Mr Waterman has a ‘massive’ collection worth millions of pounds that he has been working on for 18 years that is still unfinished.
He sold 10 per cent of his collection for £600,000 in 2015 to help secure the future of the Waterman Railway Heritage Trust.
Club president Colin Brown, 85, called Sir Rod’s gesture ‘amazing’ and praised the model train ‘fraternity’ for being so tight-knit.
MailOnline has approached representatives for Mr Holland and Mr Daltrey to see if they will match Sir Rod’s donation.
Speaking about Sir Rod’s donation, Mr Brown, a former private railway industry worker, said: ‘It’s amazing how people like Rod Stewart have donated. That’s a big help from him.
Smashed to peices: Mr Andrews’s models lie in ruins at the school after vandals broke in and destroyed them overnight
The trail of destruction leaving railway enthusiasts distraught. But the club has been blown away by a flood of donations on a Just Giving website that was set up aiming to bring in just £500 to help ‘get them back on their feet’
Bill Sowerby and Alan Hancock from the Market Deeping Model Railway Club in Sleaford, 2018, with one of their model railway constructions. In the picture below Bill and Alan, stand over a their ruined railway costing them years of work
‘It’s the fraternity with model railways. We are rude to each other and take the mickey out of each other, but we sit together.
‘It’s that sort of crowd of people.’
Mr Brown, of Cambridgeshire, added: ‘The appeal is going well, we are quite surprised by it. I have never known anything quite like it.
‘I have been involved in exhibitions since 1947-1948 and I have never seen anything vandalised like this.
‘The money raised will go towards replacing what was lost, and money left over will go to helping other clubs.
‘But we won’t be able to replace exactly what was lost. Much of the stuff was a one-off, like the hand-made stuff.
‘Some of the locomotives are not manufactured any more. The main thing we have lost is time. One layout which got completely smashed took 25 years to make.
Peter Davis (left) and Bill Sowerby from Market Deeping Model Railway Club lost years of work in the raid at Stamford Welland Academy in Stamford on Saturday. Its chairman Peter Davies, 70, said exhibits were smashed, thrown around and stamped on, including a locomotive unit worth about £8,500
Above: wrecked models of railway sidings and buildings lie on a table, with their distraught owners barely able to look
‘If it was my layout, I would be 110 years old by the time I rebuilt it. It’s the time factor we have to deal with. The cost of the materials is not the biggest thing.’
Paul Andrews, 58, owner of P&D Marsh model railway suppliers, who lives in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, estimates the vandals caused more than £20,000 worth of damage to the model railway gear he sells as a business.
The vandals smashed more than 500 or Mr Andrews’ 600 display items, featuring trains and train set accessories such as cars, animals, people and telegraph poles.
‘I make trains and things like cars, animals, people and telegraph poles,’ he said.
‘About 90 per cent of these are smashed beyond replacement.
‘It might take me two hours to replace each one, so at least 1,000 hours of my time.
‘If I value my time at £20 an hour, it’s £20,000 of my time.
‘I have to buy the materials as well.
‘If they had just come in and stole a few pieces, then you can deal with it.
‘But t’s just mindless. It’s depressing. It’s frustrating someone has destroyed a big chunk of my business,’ he added.
The wreckage has since been cleared so the school could reopen as normal and the club has taken everything salvageable to a storage site. Above: a model of a building after it has been torn to shreds
Club President Colin Brown, 85, and Mr Sowerby stand alongside their wrecked models. It was expected the show would attract between 500 to 600 people from across the country
Some of the models and equipment had been thrown through the basketball hoops in the hall, and an electrical cable had was left hanging from one of the beams in the roof. Above: Mr Brown holds one of his damaged models
The act of ‘total wanton destruction’ left ‘grown men in tears’ and led to the cancellation of the event at Stamford Welland Academy, which was described as ‘looking like a bomb site’.
The wreckage has since been cleared so the school could reopen as normal and the club has taken everything salvageable to a storage site.
Mr Davies, a grandfather-of-five, a retired teacher, said the display had taken hours to prepare and included exhibits which were the ‘life’s work’ of some members.
It was expected the show would attract between 500 to 600 people from across the country and was due to begin on Saturday.
Speaking over the weekend, Mr Davies, of Market Deeping, Lincolnshire, who has been building model trains for 60 years, said: ‘We are devastated and distraught.
‘It’s heartbreaking. There were grown men there in tears because of what had been done, and I admit I was one of them.
‘Can you imagine your life’s work wrecked? One guy spent 25 years on his work and it’s wrecked, it’s just horrendous. They left it like a bomb site.
‘We had to abandon the whole thing because it was it was scene of total devastation.
‘We will never have the time to build the sort of layouts again, that’s where the anger comes from. Some of the models were irreplaceable.
Thousands of pounds worth of model railway exhibits have been destroyed in an act of ‘total wanton destruction’
‘We will never have the time to build the sort of layouts again, that’s where the anger comes from. Some of the models were irreplaceable,’ said Mr Davies
‘Work that had taken many years to complete was totally destroyed. There were many different models of locomotives across the hall that were smashed, trodden and kicked about.
‘Tables and layouts were overturned, dioramas were trashed, it was total devastation and destruction. There was no plan it was mindless. I have no idea why someone would do this.
‘The damage will top tens of thousands of pounds but it will never any recompense the time, skill and love that went into making those models, you can’t compensate that.
‘People have spent their lives building a model and then to see it trashed, there is no human emotion you can explain – just total despair.
‘But we’ve had support from all over the world – as far away as New Zealand and we will rise back from this’.
Some of the models and equipment had been thrown through the basketball hoops in the hall, and an electrical cable had was left hanging from one of the beams in the roof.
Many exhibits featured dozens of tiny, hand-finished components, and had taken hours of preparation.
Police were alerted by a resident at 3.50am and a short while later an alarm at the school also activated.
Officers from Lincolnshire Police and a dog handler from Cambridgeshire Police were able to track down four youths who were hiding in the school.
A Lincolnshire Police spokesperson said: ‘On arrival at the school we arrested four youths, who were on the premises, for burglary and criminal damage.
‘We are continuing our investigation and confirm damage was done to model railway exhibits which had been set up in the school for a display.’
‘Mindless morons smashed up my life’s work’: Paul Andrews, 58, says vandals caused £20,000 worth of damage to the model railway gear he sells as a business
Paul Andrews, 58, owner of P&D Marsh model railway suppliers, who lives in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, estimates the vandals caused more than £20,000 worth of damage to the model railway gear he sells as a business
Paul Andrews, 58, owner of P&D Marsh model railway suppliers, who lives in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, estimates the vandals caused more than £20,000 worth of damage to the model railway gear he sells as a business.
The vandals smashed more than 500 or Mr Andrews’ 600 display items, featuring trains and train set accessories such as cars, animals, people and telegraph poles.
Mr Andrews had model railway sets as early as he can remember as a child, and began making them himself when his oldest child Louis, now 35, was interested in Thomas The Tank Engine.
He took over P&D Marsh around the same time.
M Andrews, who has five grown-up children, said: ‘This weekend has shown me both sides of humanity.
‘There were the mindless morons who smashed up some people’s life work.
‘But since then there has been a groundswell of people ringing and wishing me luck.
‘You see the best and worst of people.
‘I lost things which will physically need replacing.
‘My metal stand I use to sell models from was smashed which was worth £300 or £400.
‘I have got a card machine which needs replacing which cost £250.
‘I have been doing this for about 25 years and have built up 500 to 600 display models to show customers what each individual item they can buy looks like.
‘There is an example of each model. I make trains and things like cars, animals, people and telegraph poles.
‘About 90 per cent of these are smashed beyond replacement.
‘It might take me two hours to replace each one, so at least 1,000 hours of my time.
Mr Andrews said about 90 per cent of the models he makes for customers, such as cars, trains, animals, people and telegraph poles, are ‘smashed beyond replacement’
‘If I value my time at £20 an hour, it’s £20,000 of my time.
‘I have to buy the materials as well.
‘If they had just come in and stole a few pieces, then you can deal with it.
‘But it’s just mindless. It’s depressing. It’s frustrating someone has destroyed a big chunk of my business,’ he added.
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